NAME

SYNOPSIS

DESCRIPTION

Takes the patches given on the command line and emails them out.
Patches can be specified as files, directories (which will send all
files in the directory), or directly as a revision list. In the
last case, any format accepted by git-format-patch[1] can
be passed to git send-email.

The header of the email is configurable via command-line options. If not
specified on the command line, the user will be prompted with a ReadLine
enabled interface to provide the necessary information.

The original format used by Greg Kroah-Hartman’s send_lots_of_email.pl
script

This format expects the first line of the file to contain the "Cc:" value
and the "Subject:" of the message as the second line.

OPTIONS

Composing

--annotate

Review and edit each patch you’re about to send. Default is the value
of sendemail.annotate. See the CONFIGURATION section for
sendemail.multiEdit.

--bcc=<address>,…​

Specify a "Bcc:" value for each email. Default is the value of
sendemail.bcc.

This option may be specified multiple times.

--cc=<address>,…​

Specify a starting "Cc:" value for each email.
Default is the value of sendemail.cc.

This option may be specified multiple times.

--compose

Invoke a text editor (see GIT_EDITOR in git-var[1])
to edit an introductory message for the patch series.

When --compose is used, git send-email will use the From, Subject, and
In-Reply-To headers specified in the message. If the body of the message
(what you type after the headers and a blank line) only contains blank
(or Git: prefixed) lines, the summary won’t be sent, but From, Subject,
and In-Reply-To headers will be used unless they are removed.

Missing From or In-Reply-To headers will be prompted for.

See the CONFIGURATION section for sendemail.multiEdit.

--from=<address>

Specify the sender of the emails. If not specified on the command line,
the value of the sendemail.from configuration option is used. If
neither the command-line option nor sendemail.from are set, then the
user will be prompted for the value. The default for the prompt will be
the value of GIT_AUTHOR_IDENT, or GIT_COMMITTER_IDENT if that is not
set, as returned by "git var -l".

--in-reply-to=<identifier>

Make the first mail (or all the mails with --no-thread) appear as a
reply to the given Message-Id, which avoids breaking threads to
provide a new patch series.
The second and subsequent emails will be sent as replies according to
the --[no-]chain-reply-to setting.

So for example when --thread and --no-chain-reply-to are specified, the
second and subsequent patches will be replies to the first one like in the
illustration below where [PATCH v2 0/3] is in reply to [PATCH 0/2]:

Only necessary if --compose is also set. If --compose
is not set, this will be prompted for.

--subject=<string>

Specify the initial subject of the email thread.
Only necessary if --compose is also set. If --compose
is not set, this will be prompted for.

--to=<address>,…​

Specify the primary recipient of the emails generated. Generally, this
will be the upstream maintainer of the project involved. Default is the
value of the sendemail.to configuration value; if that is unspecified,
and --to-cmd is not specified, this will be prompted for.

This option may be specified multiple times.

--8bit-encoding=<encoding>

When encountering a non-ASCII message or subject that does not
declare its encoding, add headers/quoting to indicate it is
encoded in <encoding>. Default is the value of the
sendemail.assume8bitEncoding; if that is unspecified, this
will be prompted for if any non-ASCII files are encountered.

Note that no attempts whatsoever are made to validate the encoding.

--compose-encoding=<encoding>

Specify encoding of compose message. Default is the value of the
sendemail.composeencoding; if that is unspecified, UTF-8 is assumed.

--transfer-encoding=(7bit|8bit|quoted-printable|base64)

Specify the transfer encoding to be used to send the message over SMTP.
7bit will fail upon encountering a non-ASCII message. quoted-printable
can be useful when the repository contains files that contain carriage
returns, but makes the raw patch email file (as saved from a MUA) much
harder to inspect manually. base64 is even more fool proof, but also
even more opaque. Default is the value of the sendemail.transferEncoding
configuration value; if that is unspecified, git will use 8bit and not
add a Content-Transfer-Encoding header.

--xmailer

--no-xmailer

Add (or prevent adding) the "X-Mailer:" header. By default,
the header is added, but it can be turned off by setting the
sendemail.xmailer configuration variable to false.

Sending

--envelope-sender=<address>

Specify the envelope sender used to send the emails.
This is useful if your default address is not the address that is
subscribed to a list. In order to use the From address, set the
value to "auto". If you use the sendmail binary, you must have
suitable privileges for the -f parameter. Default is the value of the
sendemail.envelopeSender configuration variable; if that is
unspecified, choosing the envelope sender is left to your MTA.

--smtp-encryption=<encryption>

Specify the encryption to use, either ssl or tls. Any other
value reverts to plain SMTP. Default is the value of
sendemail.smtpEncryption.

--smtp-domain=<FQDN>

Specifies the Fully Qualified Domain Name (FQDN) used in the
HELO/EHLO command to the SMTP server. Some servers require the
FQDN to match your IP address. If not set, git send-email attempts
to determine your FQDN automatically. Default is the value of
sendemail.smtpDomain.

--smtp-auth=<mechanisms>

Whitespace-separated list of allowed SMTP-AUTH mechanisms. This setting
forces using only the listed mechanisms. Example:

$ git send-email --smtp-auth="PLAIN LOGIN GSSAPI" ...

If at least one of the specified mechanisms matches the ones advertised by the
SMTP server and if it is supported by the utilized SASL library, the mechanism
is used for authentication. If neither sendemail.smtpAuth nor --smtp-auth
is specified, all mechanisms supported by the SASL library can be used.

--smtp-pass[=<password>]

Password for SMTP-AUTH. The argument is optional: If no
argument is specified, then the empty string is used as
the password. Default is the value of sendemail.smtpPass,
however --smtp-pass always overrides this value.

Furthermore, passwords need not be specified in configuration files
or on the command line. If a username has been specified (with
--smtp-user or a sendemail.smtpUser), but no password has been
specified (with --smtp-pass or sendemail.smtpPass), then
a password is obtained using git-credential.

--smtp-server=<host>

If set, specifies the outgoing SMTP server to use (e.g.
smtp.example.com or a raw IP address). Alternatively it can
specify a full pathname of a sendmail-like program instead;
the program must support the -i option. Default value can
be specified by the sendemail.smtpServer configuration
option; the built-in default is to search for sendmail in
/usr/sbin, /usr/lib and $PATH if such program is
available, falling back to localhost otherwise.

--smtp-server-port=<port>

Specifies a port different from the default port (SMTP
servers typically listen to smtp port 25, but may also listen to
submission port 587, or the common SSL smtp port 465);
symbolic port names (e.g. "submission" instead of 587)
are also accepted. The port can also be set with the
sendemail.smtpServerPort configuration variable.

--smtp-server-option=<option>

If set, specifies the outgoing SMTP server option to use.
Default value can be specified by the sendemail.smtpServerOption
configuration option.

The --smtp-server-option option must be repeated for each option you want
to pass to the server. Likewise, different lines in the configuration files
must be used for each option.

--smtp-ssl

Legacy alias for --smtp-encryption ssl.

--smtp-ssl-cert-path

Path to a store of trusted CA certificates for SMTP SSL/TLS
certificate validation (either a directory that has been processed
by c_rehash, or a single file containing one or more PEM format
certificates concatenated together: see verify(1) -CAfile and
-CApath for more information on these). Set it to an empty string
to disable certificate verification. Defaults to the value of the
sendemail.smtpsslcertpath configuration variable, if set, or the
backing SSL library’s compiled-in default otherwise (which should
be the best choice on most platforms).

--smtp-user=<user>

Username for SMTP-AUTH. Default is the value of sendemail.smtpUser;
if a username is not specified (with --smtp-user or sendemail.smtpUser),
then authentication is not attempted.

Some email servers (e.g. smtp.163.com) limit the number emails to be
sent per session (connection) and this will lead to a faliure when
sending many messages. With this option, send-email will disconnect after
sending $<num> messages and wait for a few seconds (see --relogin-delay)
and reconnect, to work around such a limit. You may want to
use some form of credential helper to avoid having to retype
your password every time this happens. Defaults to the
sendemail.smtpBatchSize configuration variable.

--relogin-delay=<int>

Waiting $<int> seconds before reconnecting to SMTP server. Used together
with --batch-size option. Defaults to the sendemail.smtpReloginDelay
configuration variable.

Automating

--to-cmd=<command>

Specify a command to execute once per patch file which
should generate patch file specific "To:" entries.
Output of this command must be single email address per line.
Default is the value of sendemail.tocmd configuration value.

--cc-cmd=<command>

Specify a command to execute once per patch file which
should generate patch file specific "Cc:" entries.
Output of this command must be single email address per line.
Default is the value of sendemail.ccCmd configuration value.

--[no-]chain-reply-to

If this is set, each email will be sent as a reply to the previous
email sent. If disabled with "--no-chain-reply-to", all emails after
the first will be sent as replies to the first email sent. When using
this, it is recommended that the first file given be an overview of the
entire patch series. Disabled by default, but the sendemail.chainReplyTo
configuration variable can be used to enable it.

--identity=<identity>

A configuration identity. When given, causes values in the
sendemail.<identity> subsection to take precedence over
values in the sendemail section. The default identity is
the value of sendemail.identity.

--[no-]signed-off-by-cc

If this is set, add emails found in Signed-off-by: or Cc: lines to the
cc list. Default is the value of sendemail.signedoffbycc configuration
value; if that is unspecified, default to --signed-off-by-cc.

--[no-]cc-cover

If this is set, emails found in Cc: headers in the first patch of
the series (typically the cover letter) are added to the cc list
for each email set. Default is the value of sendemail.cccover
configuration value; if that is unspecified, default to --no-cc-cover.

--[no-]to-cover

If this is set, emails found in To: headers in the first patch of
the series (typically the cover letter) are added to the to list
for each email set. Default is the value of sendemail.tocover
configuration value; if that is unspecified, default to --no-to-cover.

--suppress-cc=<category>

Specify an additional category of recipients to suppress the
auto-cc of:

author will avoid including the patch author

self will avoid including the sender

cc will avoid including anyone mentioned in Cc lines in the patch header
except for self (use self for that).

bodycc will avoid including anyone mentioned in Cc lines in the
patch body (commit message) except for self (use self for that).

sob will avoid including anyone mentioned in Signed-off-by lines except
for self (use self for that).

cccmd will avoid running the --cc-cmd.

body is equivalent to sob + bodycc

all will suppress all auto cc values.

Default is the value of sendemail.suppresscc configuration value; if
that is unspecified, default to self if --suppress-from is
specified, as well as body if --no-signed-off-cc is specified.

--[no-]suppress-from

If this is set, do not add the From: address to the cc: list.
Default is the value of sendemail.suppressFrom configuration
value; if that is unspecified, default to --no-suppress-from.

--[no-]thread

If this is set, the In-Reply-To and References headers will be
added to each email sent. Whether each mail refers to the
previous email (deep threading per git format-patch
wording) or to the first email (shallow threading) is
governed by "--[no-]chain-reply-to".

If disabled with "--no-thread", those headers will not be added
(unless specified with --in-reply-to). Default is the value of the
sendemail.thread configuration value; if that is unspecified,
default to --thread.

It is up to the user to ensure that no In-Reply-To header already
exists when git send-email is asked to add it (especially note that
git format-patch can be configured to do the threading itself).
Failure to do so may not produce the expected result in the
recipient’s MUA.

Administering

--confirm=<mode>

Confirm just before sending:

always will always confirm before sending

never will never confirm before sending

cc will confirm before sending when send-email has automatically
added addresses from the patch to the Cc list

compose will confirm before sending the first message when using --compose.

auto is equivalent to cc + compose

Default is the value of sendemail.confirm configuration value; if that
is unspecified, default to auto unless any of the suppress options
have been specified, in which case default to compose.

--dry-run

Do everything except actually send the emails.

--[no-]format-patch

When an argument may be understood either as a reference or as a file name,
choose to understand it as a format-patch argument (--format-patch)
or as a file name (--no-format-patch). By default, when such a conflict
occurs, git send-email will fail.

--quiet

Make git-send-email less verbose. One line per email should be
all that is output.

Default is the value of sendemail.validate; if this is not set,
default to --validate.

--force

Send emails even if safety checks would prevent it.

Information

--dump-aliases

Instead of the normal operation, dump the shorthand alias names from
the configured alias file(s), one per line in alphabetical order. Note,
this only includes the alias name and not its expanded email addresses.
See sendemail.aliasesfile for more information about aliases.

CONFIGURATION

sendemail.aliasesFile

To avoid typing long email addresses, point this to one or more
email aliases files. You must also supply sendemail.aliasFileType.

sendemail.aliasFileType

Format of the file(s) specified in sendemail.aliasesFile. Must be
one of mutt, mailrc, pine, elm, or gnus, or sendmail.

What an alias file in each format looks like can be found in
the documentation of the email program of the same name. The
differences and limitations from the standard formats are
described below:

sendmail

Quoted aliases and quoted addresses are not supported: lines that
contain a " symbol are ignored.

Redirection to a file (/path/name) or pipe (|command) is not
supported.

File inclusion (:include: /path/name) is not supported.

Warnings are printed on the standard error output for any
explicitly unsupported constructs, and any other lines that are not
recognized by the parser.

sendemail.multiEdit

If true (default), a single editor instance will be spawned to edit
files you have to edit (patches when --annotate is used, and the
summary when --compose is used). If false, files will be edited one
after the other, spawning a new editor each time.

sendemail.confirm

Sets the default for whether to confirm before sending. Must be
one of always, never, cc, compose, or auto. See --confirm
in the previous section for the meaning of these values.

EXAMPLE

Use gmail as the smtp server

To use git send-email to send your patches through the GMail SMTP server,
edit ~/.gitconfig to specify your account settings:

If you have multifactor authentication setup on your gmail account, you will
need to generate an app-specific password for use with git send-email. Visit
https://security.google.com/settings/security/apppasswords to setup an
app-specific password. Once setup, you can store it with the credentials
helper: